Man has been walking for at least three million years. He has been jogging for 30. Fitness walking is a good exercise recommended by exercise physiologists, biomechanical experts, cardiologists, chest experts, obesity experts and stress experts, among others.

Walking has always been a major form of transportation for Man, but only recently have the health and mental benefits of fitness walking become apparent. Today there are many walking clubs in all over world, plus dozens of exercise physiology labs and programs studying the beneficial effects of walking.

Moderate

Your Target Heart Rate

Walking will improve your fitness even without checking your pulse. However, if you wish to have an workfit workout and condition the heart, then you need to walk intensely enough to raise your hear-beat to between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of its maximum. (For the very unfit, 50-60 per cent is an adequate goal)

This workout zone is known as the target, or training heart rate zone and experts believe that it is in this zone that substantial benefits are provided for cardiovascular and respiratory health. For most people, walking at a speed of 3.5-4 mph will be sufficient to achieve this. For some, however, a pace of 4.5 mph may be necessary to put them into their training zone.

There is an easy way to calculate your target heart rate zone. For example:

1. Subtract your age from 220. If you are 30 then that will be 220-30=190. That's your maximum heart rate.

2. Now calculate 60 per cent and 80 per cent of your maximum heart rate: 190X60 per cent = 114 and 190X80 per cent = 152.

Four Week Walkfit Programme

Day 1-7

The WALKFIT programme begins with Day 1. This can be any day of the week that you choose, but Monday is a good day to get started with something that is going to change the rest of your life. The plan is designed so that the final two days each week coincide with a weekend, when you are likely to have more time and energy to do fitness walking.

Begin with 20 minutes fitness walking. That means walking briskly around the route that you have measured out, and taking your pulse at regular intervals along the walk to make sure that you are within your target heart rate zone.

You will already have warmed up and stretched out, so you should now start gradually building your pace over four or five minutes, allowing your heart-beat to rise slowly into your target training zone. Walk with the longest stride that is comfortable. As your speed increases, your stride will lengthen and so will the distance that you cover. If you feel that you are straining, then reduce the pace until you feel comfortable again. It normally takes the first ten minutes of any walk to get into a good rhythm and get the circulation going, but once you get into your stride, you will find it easy to keep going.

The same rule for the WALKPLAN programme applies to the WALKFIT programme: if you can't hold a conversation while you walk, then you are going too fast.

Continue walking as per the WALKPLAN. Filling the plan in each day to record your progress and keep you motivated.

Day 8-14

This week you are gradually going to increase your time from 20 to 30 minutes each day. Make sure that you increase the time you walk before you increase your pace; get used to walking for longer before pushing yourself harder in your target heart rate zone.

As you walk each day, alternating moderate with brisk walking, gently stretch yourself to go a little further without tiring. At the end of the week you should be able to walk comfortably for 30 minutes at a brisk.

Day 15-21

You should now be beginning to feel the real benefits of fitness walking. Not only are your heart and lungs benefiting from your increased aerobic activity, but you are burning up calories while you walk. Walking a mile burns only about 10 to 20 per cent fewer calories than jogging a mile. For every mile you walk at 3.5 to 4 miles an hour, you are burning around 100 calories. You are becoming fitter and leaner.

This week you should gradually increase your walking time from 30 to 45 minutes. Again, make sure that you increase the time you walk before increasing your pace. This way you will find it easy to build on the previous day without overdoing it and getting injured in the process.

Day 22-28

Only seven more days and you will be a competent fitness walker. By the end of the third week you should have increased your walking time so that you are able to walk briskly for 45 minutes without tiring. Your fourth begins with a moderate walk of 45 minutes, but after that it is fitness walking all the way to the end of your WALKFIT  programme.

You should feel better, look better, and be motivated enough to carry on walking with the help of the all walk fitness programme, you will be burning around 300 calories each time you walk, and your increased metabolic rate will be helping to burn up another few hundred calories when you have finished walking.

Walking Speed Conversion Table

Getting Into The Swing Of It

1. Your walking centre - If you imagine a straight line going down the road between the centre of your feet and stretching ahead of you, then this represents your walking centre. Keeping your legs parallel to this line and your toes pointing directly ahead, walk with your normal stride.

2. Finding your stride - Pace is the key to finding your stride and reaching a good rhythm in your walking. Set off at a good pace with the longest stride that is comfortable, letting your arms swing naturally in opposition to your feet. The arms should move at the same speed as the legs. If you relax your shoulders, then as you walk the arms will swing by themselves, finding their own natural rhythm. As your right foot swings forwards, your left arm will swing with it, when your left foot swings forwards, your right arm will swing in opposition to it. The arms and shoulders move and swing in a pendulum like motion in counterbalance to the legs and hips. As you walk faster, you will find that your arms bend naturally and quicken up to keep pace with your legs. There is no need to pump the arms aggressively backwards and forwards, bent at a 90⁰ angle. This technique has more to do with race walking and power walking than it does with genuine fitness walking. Fitness walking is a moderate activity which anyone can enjoy - not just athletes and those who follow the 'no pain, no gain' way.

3. Heel to toe - You will want to make sure that your feet are landing in the right place, and the way to do this is to use the heel-toe method. As you step from one foot to the other, the heel of your leading foot should touch the ground just before the ball of the foot and toes. Then as the heel touches the ground, lock your ankle and shift your weight forwards with the knee bent, rocking on to the toes and using them to push you off to the next step.

4. Breathe naturally - As you build up to a steady pace, your breathing should deepen naturally and you should inhale and exhale rhythmically through the nose. If you normally breathe from the chest area rather than the abdomen, try breathing deeply from the abdomen. Efficient breathing through the nostrils pulls the air down deep into the lungs, expanding the lungs downwards and the lungs and chest forwards. To breathe deeply, inhale by first moving your abdomen outwards. You will feel your stomach rise, then your upper abdomen, and finally your chest. Then breathe out by letting your stomach relax.

Deep rhythmic breathing will revitalise you. Your muscles will relax and your mind will clear, as tension and stress are drained away and you let go totally.